Friday, 31 July 2015

Review: Afternoon Tea At Hanbury Manor

Having recently stayed with Hanbury Manor for their "Ultimate Sleep Experience"with Duxiana Beds, I promised that I would blog separately about their afternoon tea - so here it is, there really was far too much to say not to. I have been lucky enough to sample afternoon tea at Hanbury Manor a while back now, but they have recently changed their menu and I was invited to give it a whirl. Well, who was I to say no? You must know me by now... Setting The Scene: Afternoon tea at Hanbury Manor is served within their oak panelled study close to the main entrance of the hotel and what a stunning room this is. With carved and ornate decorations over the fireplace and around the windows, it's the perfect location for a traditionally British afternoon tea. There's a choice of tables to book when you visit, options including a formal and elegant high table within the secluded library behind the main walls, or a slightly more informal and lower table within the study itself. We went for a lower table, complete with soft, cushioned chairs to recline in as we sipped on our Pommery champagne after arriving. The champagne tea of which we were sampling served my favourite sparkling beverage in the most beautiful etched flutes I've ever sipped from at tea, these made it feel very special before we had even started. In fact, this champagne is very light, almost too light... I managed to sip it rather quickly and the bubbles did seem to go straight to my head, ahem. We ordered different teas to sample as many as we could, opting for the Royal Tea blend and a light Ceylon for my bearded friend, who was a little unsure what to go for in place of the usual "builders tea" he would normally make. The Afternoon Tea: The tall afternoon tea tier looks mightily impressive on serving, with the first element I spotted being their salmon pinwheel sandwiches, these looked so striking and inviting in equal measures. But, not only did they look beautiful, they tasted as good as they looked - perfectly moist and filled with tasty smoked salmon, a real wow factor for this tea. These were certainly the highlight when it came to the finger sandwiches, as unfortunately the rest were rather dry and had started to curl. I know how much of a challenge it can be to keep finger sandwiches fresh, but these had been made a while and hadn't kept well. The fillings were very traditional, cucumber & mint, ham & mustard on a walnut bread (our next favourite) and egg & watercress in a pink beetroot bread - very unusual breads, I liked the selection used in this way. We were also served a thin savoury muffin topped with crayfish, but again, the muffin was very dry and felt almost stale to the bite, it just wasn't very pleasant. A real shame, as again, this could have worked very well as a slightly different savoury offering to this tier. I would, however, also urge any afternoon tea venue reading this to please stop using watercress with your egg mayonnaise finger sandwiches. The thick, long stalks don't taste good or feel good when biting into a (what should be "dainty" or ladylike) sandwich, this is personally a real bug bear of mine. What's wrong with normal cress when it comes to this filling? Perhaps it's just me? We were offered more finger sandwiches, but we didn't take our waiter up on the offer, but there was plenty of food to keep on enjoying this time. The Scones: So, moving on to the scones... Oh these scones were worthy of the visit on these baked goods alone. They were served wrapped up in a cloth napkin (we were also provided with these for our laps, my bearded friend choosing to tuck his into his collar instead of over his knee of course ; ) to keep them warm for longer. I love this touch and have only seen it in one other hotel before, so I'm always pleased when they're tucked up in this way. Scones should break through the middle when pulling apart with your fingers and these did so beautifully, they were fluffy in the middle, light as air and tasted heavenly. We could even taste the glaze on the top of the scones, of which I asked for some geekery on as they tasted so good. Executive Head Chef, Raj Chakraborty (who is a fine man indeed) tells me the secret to a good glaze is as follows.

The glaze is made of egg yolk, sugar and salt. Salt prevents it to burn, sugar caramelises and gives that effect.

1 comment:

The food is looking really delicious and the place also seems to be really amazing. I was also searching for a place like this where I can plan for a small meeting. Can you suggest me the best venue space nyc? Thanks.

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